Winner of the "share the title" giveaway

Hey all, I'm in the thick of working on THE SAVAGE GRACE right now (this scene involves a shirtless, a gun with silver bullets, and . . . a shirtless guy) so I'm just popping in for a bit to announce our winner of ENTWINED by Heather Dixon:

JESSY (please email me at readbree AT gmail DOT com with your mailing address to claim your prize.)

Sorry for the short post. I promise to write about much more interesting things once this draft is turned in! (I've got a few ideas brewing already.)

Oh yes, and I am so glad you all love the title for THE SAVAGE GRACE as much as I do! And thank you for spreading the word. Y'all seriously rock!

TDD3 has a title--and I can share it now!

5/18/2011

So, I guess the cat is essentially out of the bag now. Some of you may have already seen this on Amazon (they apparently beat me to the punch) but I am now finally allowed to share with you all the title for the third and final Dark Divine installment.

Are you ready for this?

Book 3 is titled:

The Savage Grace (to be released December 27th, 2011)

The book cover has also been completed, and it is, of course, gorgeous. However, I am not at liberty to share that yet. I will do so as soon as I get the green light and a final image from my publisher (and hopefully I won't get upstaged by Amazon again... heheh).

I am very excited about this title, and as with THE DARK DIVINE and THE LOST SAINT, the title references more than one thing in the story.

To share my excitement over the title, and to get you all a little pumped up for the cover reveal, I've decided to hold another giveaway. There are still a lot of people out there who still don't know that there's a third book planned in the DARK DIVINE trilogy, and I need your help getting it out there so everyone will know. So if you go forth and share the title and release date (December 27th, 2011) of THE SAVAGE GRACE (and the fact that it is the third book in the trilogy) I'll enter you to win a rare signed copy of ENTWINED by Heather Dixon.
(Heather doesn't do signings--so I was extremely lucky to get a copy signed to give away. And believe me, you want it!)

Feel free to share the title and release date however you feel will get the word out, and then tell me about what you did in the comments of this post. Only one entry per contestant, but multiple mediums of dissemination is always appreciated. :)

Giveaway ends at midnight MST on May 24th. Winners will be picked and announced here on the blog the following day.

On a completely different note, have you seen the recap Heidi R. Kling and I did of the season 2 finale of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES? If not, go check it out on Smart Pop Books' Blog and be sure not to miss the puppet show at the bottom of the post ;-). I'm really quite proud of it.

Spread the Love: Be a character in TDD3 & help tornado victims in Alabama

5/11/2011

Hey friends-

GOOD NEWS:

The 3rd book in the Dark Divine trilogy finally has a title and a cover--I'm just not allowed to share them with you yet. But I will as soon as I get the go ahead from my publisher. Seriously, I HATE keeping secrets!

IN THE MEANTIME:

I'm devoting this week's "Spread the Love" post to showing a little love for the people of Alabama. As many of you know, several cities in Alabama were practically wiped off the map by tornadoes. I have many family and friends out there who have seen their communities devastated not only by the storm, but also by a loss of hope. Blogger Courtney Barr (a.k.a. The Southern Princess) asked me if I'd be willing to donate to the ALL 4 ALABAMA Tornado Relief Auction to help raise money for these communities--and I jumped at the chance to help.

In addition to donating signed copies of THE DARK DIVINE and THE LOST SAINT to be auctioned off, I decided to throw in something extra special...

Have you ever wanted to see your name in a book? Ever imagined yourself interacting with some the characters in the novel your reading? Ever wanted to BE one of the characters? Here's your chance:

I'm auctioning off the opportunity to BE a character in the third Dark Divine novel!

Details--what the winner of the auction can expect:

1. Your character will be named after you (or a name of your choosing--as long as it's not too ridiculous).

2. Your character will have multiple lines of dialogue (not just an "extra" in the background).

3. Your character will fit your physical description (eye color, hair color, gender, & ethnicity).

4. Your character will have supernatural abilities (and get to kick some butt!)

5. The 3rd book in the Dark Divine trilogy will be published in December of 2011--so you don't have to wait forever to see yourself in a book!

6. Signed copies of THE DARK DIVINE and THE LOST SAINT so you can brush up on the previous books before meeting your character.

So whether you're a fan of TDD, or just want to be a character in a published novel, click HERE to go bid in the ALL 4 ALABAMA Auction.

(There are MANY other items also up for bid, so check those out while you're there.)

NOTE: Do not place bids for the auction here on my blog, you must go HERE in order to bid.

Winners of BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE

4/28/2011

Here are the winners of signed copies of BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE by Emily Wing Smith (as chosen by Random.org):

Culinary Contessa
noliea

Winners, email me at readbree(at)gmail(dot)com with your shipping address. If you can get it to me before 7pm MST tonight I can get your copy signed specifically to whomever you want.

Everyone else, I hope you'll go out and buy a copy of this fabulous book! And thank you for sharing your "loved" books with the rest of us.

Spreading the Love: Emily Wing Smith and BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE (Giveaway)

4/25/2011

Sorry for the blog silence (I know, I know, I've said that a lot lately) but I'm hard at work on book 3 of the Dark Divine trilogy. (Yes, there is a book 3! It comes out December 27th--hence why I'm working on it so furiously.)

Anyway, I'm taking a little break from writing about Grace and Daniel in order to start a new feature on my blog called "Spreading the Love."

Even though I've been holed up in my writing cave for the last several weeks, I've still been in tune with the YA world enough to notice that there's been a lot of bashing and anger and hating going on around the interwebs lately (over a myriad of topics from all different view points). In my opinion, hate is a nasty, contagious, disease that I would prefer to stay as far away from as possible so I don't get infected with it. (I'm neurotic enough, I don't need anything else to obsess over.) I just don't have time for hate in my life. I'd much rather spend my time talking about the things I love--and why I love them.

Which is why I want to spend a little time each week "Spreading the Love." So for the next little while, expect a series of posts from me about the things I love.

To kick off "Spreading the Love," I'd like to tell you about one of the people I love the most in the world: Emily Wing Smith.

Emily is one of my critique partners, a dear friend, and one of the reasons I am a published author today. Seriously, I don't know if THE DARK DIVINE would even exist if it weren't for the amazing Emily Wing Smith.

Here's why: Emily and I met several years ago (about 11, I think) when we were both taking a YA fiction writing class in college. I loved Emily's writing and was in awe of her talent. We got to know each other a little bit during that class, but after it was over, I didn't see her again for many years. About 7 years ago (I think) I went to a writing conference called Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers. It was during a time in my life that although I was very determined to become an author--I felt very daunted by the task of trying to do it all by myself. I went to that conference looking for a little inspiration, and what I found was Emily.

Em and I ended up in an advanced writing class together and by the end of the week we'd re-sparked our old friendship. It felt so awesome to have a writer-friend again. Em and I started talking about putting together a critique group with another writer-friend from our old college class. Soon a fourth person was added to our little group that met once a month to share our writing, critique each others' work, and just plain lend our support.

It wasn't long after our little group started meeting that I decided to challenge myself with a new writing project: a story about a girl named Grace and a boy named Daniel. My group encouraged and helped me through so many drafts of THE DARK DIVINE over several years. Our group has grown over time (there's six of us now--which is why we call ourselves The SIX) and we are more than a critique group. I'd say that we are best friends who also happen to critique.

Emily was the first in our group to get a book published. A beautiful collection of stories called THE WAY HE LIVED. Seeing Emily succeed prompted me to take a chance and start submitting my stories around, and a little while later, I sold the Dark Divine trilogy.

Emily and I (along with Brodi Ashton and any other member of The SIX who is available) meet almost every Thursday to write, talk through plot points, and mostly just enjoy spending time with other people who "get" what were going through as writers. It's pretty much what keeps me sane.

This Thursday, April 28th, Emily's second book, BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE, is going to be released!!!

This was actually the book Emily was working on all those years ago when we met at that conference. I've had the privilege of reading and critiquing several parts of this book--and I can't tell you how excited I am for this book to finally make it out into the world. It's beautiful, romantic, thought-provoking, and also a lot of fun. Who could want more than two hot guys, a road trip, an unplanned Vegas detour involving Barry Manilow, and lots of Sprite?

To celebrate the book release, I'll be joining The SIX in our one and only performance as our Barry Manilow cover band "The Barely Manilows" at Em's launch party at The King's English Bookshop this Thursday (7:00 pm). As the most non-musical, non-coordinated person in the world, it means a whole darn lot that I'm willing to make a fool of myself for Emily and her book. (And you certainly don't want to miss it!)

GIVEAWAY TIME:

For those of you who can't make the party, don't worry, as part of my "Spread the Love" series, I'm going to give away 2 signed copies of BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE here on the blog...so you can love it just as much as I do.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment about a book you love--or a book you're looking forward to. That way you can "spread the love" for that book to the rest of us.

Contest ends Wednesday night (April 27th) at 11:59 p.m. I'll announce winners Thursday morning.

Now go spread your love in the comments...