Monster Month of Giveaways!

Halloween is kind of like my Christmas.

I'm known to send cards, bake creepy cookies, give strange gifts.

& what better way to celebrate a month of Vampires, Ghosts, Zombies, Faeries & the Paranormal than with a MONSTER MONTH OF GIVEAWAYS?!?!

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What:EVERY Thursday I will be holding a contest for awesome Halloween gift baskets loaded with cool YA books and themed gifts!

Where: Brooke Taylor's Blog, Brooke Taylor Books MySpace, Brooke's Books Live Journal

When:

October 2-9th: Vampires! Two winner to be drawn for Vampire gift packs--one to include the first two House of Night Books - (Marked and Betrayed) and a Dark Daughters necklace & another with the next two House of Night Books (Chosen & Untamed) with a crescent moon necklace.(plus more fun goodies)

October 9-16th: Ghosts! ARC of Saundra Mitchell's Shadowed Summer! Must Love Black/Project 17/A Certain Slant of Light/Ghostgirl + lots of ghostly goodies!!!

October 16-23rd: Zombies! ARC STacey Jay's You're So Undead To Me, Zombie Blondes, Generation Dead, Zombies Calling

October 23rd-30th: Faeries! ARC Fairy Lust by Cyn Balog!! AND MORE TBA!

October 31st: Paranormal Power Ball! TBA! (Winner drawn from entries to all previous contests)

ARC of EVERMORE by Alyson Noel!!!

plus:
LILY DALE: AWAKENING by Wendy Corsi Staub
Sleepless by Terri Clark
Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra
Unleashed by Kristopher Reisz
The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book 1) - Kelley Armstrong
Old Magic by Marianne Curley
Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Lia Block
Red Handed (Teen Alien Huntress) by Gena Showalter
and
Stake That! (The Blood Coven) by Mari Mancusi

all in a "WISH ME MONSTERS" tote bag!

How:

Leave a comment on any Thursday Contest Post-only one comment per each blog allowed (so max 3 entries per Thursday)

*BONUS* 5 extra entries: Post this announcement on your blog and comment with link!
*BONUS* 1 extra entry/per week: Post reminder on your blog
*BONUS BONUS* 5 extra entries if you start "following my blog" (if you already are you get 6! and a big Thank you!!)

Thursday Morning Book Club Giveaway!

Thursday Morning Book Club

Banned Book Edition!

Comment 2 Win books and stuff!

Forever by Judy Blume

"Sybil Davison has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys..."

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

"I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though..."

WIN!

Leave a comment about something positive you've taken from a book you've read that has been challenged or banned &/OR tell me what banned book you would like to read.

What you could win: A Banned Book bracelet from ALA & the banned YA (or YA crossover) book of your choice!

Next Thrusday (10/02/08) I'll draw two winners randomly from comments made from this post on blogger, live journal, and MySpace or comment on all three to increase your chances :-)

Banned Adult Books Bracelet: Designed by Carolyn Forsman, the bracelet features The Color Purple, Howl, Go Ask Alice, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Annie on My Mind.

Banned Kid's Books Bracelet: Designed by Carolyn Forsman, the bracelet features The Adventures of Captain Underpants, King & King, Annie on My Mind, To Kill A Mockingbird, In the Night Kitchen, Athletic Shorts, and Blubber.

Forks or Bust!

"For many fans, the line where reality ends and imagination begins is starting to blur, says Michael Gurling, who caught inspiration from the tourism boom and started his own Twilight Tours.

After enlisting a few locals, he asked for help in picking out houses that could serve as stand-ins for the book's famous Forks' stops: Bella and Edward's houses, a field where vampires play baseball. Other locations, such as the police station, where Bella's father works, and the hospital, where Edward's father is a doctor, play their own parts. They chipped in, providing cruisers near which fans may take pictures and reserving a spot for "Dr. Cullen" in the parking lot.

"The most popular spot is probably the beach, in LaPush, where Bella finds out the truth about Edward," says Gurling.

On a recent Friday, Gurling's van headed out of the visitor's center parking lot — packed, as it is most every weekend, with teenage girls. Outside the stand-in for Edward's house, a sign on the door says "Cullens" are volunteering a blood drive."

I wish I lived close enough to do this--I love campy fun. I think it is so cool that the town is having a revival and enjoying the books and the tourism and some of their about Twilight fans are pretty funny. And a side of vampire fangs with your Bella Burger order is pretty clever--But what is too far? The Bella engagement ring maybe?

And more from the town of Forks, WA

Fashion Police--Alive and Well

"Baggy Pants Bill" House Bill 1626, also known as the “Baggy Pants Bill” states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to appear in public wearing his pants below his waist and thereby exposing his skin or intimate clothing.”

Seriously?

I assume our fine lawmakers are okay with this, though:

I also came across this situation where a teacher is allowed a nose-stud but a a kid gets expelled for snake-bite piercing:

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/09/19/6812871-sun.html

When I was in high school the girls wore boy's boxer shorts, I'm pretty sure that was as exposed as anyone ever got. Of course high-waisted jeans were popular (think Saved by the Bell) --I cringe, but yes it is true. I can't bring myself to even show you a picture of the girl's jeans, so I give you this:

See, guys? You can look hot without showing the junk in your trunk.

For more fun than anyone can stand: http://www.thefashionpolice.net/

Now there should be a law outlawing this! (and no, I don't know where you can buy one).

Friday...I'm in Love!

Okay--maybe not love--but certainly curious...

No...not in the guy, but in his desk. It's a treadmill desk!

What do you think authors? No more "secretary spread"

And just look at her smile! That could be you writing your next best seller! Pacing will never be an issue for you!

No more evil kitty editors sitting on your lap, reading your manuscript and looking at you with disdain! You won't even have a lap! They will be powerless!!

Crap. There's just no stopping Evil Kitty Editors.

The Carrie Diaries!

How cool is this? Candace Bushnell is going to be writing about Carrie's teen years--life before Sex and the City!

Author Candace Bushnell is writing two books looking at the Sex and the City heroine's adolescence



The first book will come out in 2010. Bushnell, in a statement issued by her publisher, said, "Carrie in high school did not follow the crowd _ she led it. It was there that she began observing and commenting on the social scene."



Sarah Jessica Parker as a teen

3... YA Books You Should Read

...before they hit the bigscreen this fall!

Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson

Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Twilight by Stephenie Meyers

This Blog is Simple, Like my Brother-in-law Phil

Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with wisdom that only comes from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of e. coli, and he was room temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap,only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either,but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a landmine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells,as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

The Truth about Celeb Authors...

Nicole Richie is a reality star celebutante, famous for doing pretty much nothing (not that I'm judging!):
Lauren Conrad is a reality star celebutante, famous for doing pretty much nothing (again, soooo not judging!!):
Nicole dated Brody Jenner:

Lauren dated Brody Jenner
Nicole had a highly publicized break up with a blond BFF over an "inappropriate" tape:
Lauren had a highly publicized breakup with a blond BFF over an "inappropriate" tape:
Nicole wrote a "loosely inspired" book about her celebutante status:

Lauren, our favorite girl-next-door-if-we-lived-in-LaLa Land, apparently just signed a 3 book deal to write a series that is "loosely inspired" by her celebutante status:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080912/ap_on_en_tv/people_lauren_conrad

Being a writer myself--I notice the release date for the first LA Candy book is summer of 09--I hope that means she's already finished the first book! Wait--just did a Google and on her very own blog it has the following:

“I run ideas by Lo and I’ll ask for her opinion because I value my friends’ opinions,” says the budding author, who has completed the outline for the first book.

Ay Dios Mio! Only the outline, LC? Most authors with releases in the '09 have already been getting their line edits. Best get crackin'!

Thanks Mandy Writer for the tip off about the newest YA writer on the scene!

3 Things...in Undone

This is Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs, Colorado--this is where Serena goes on her date! The pizza is to die for.
This is the infamous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. This hotel was used in the movie The Shining, it is also haunted. I went there when I worked as a Wrangler at a guest ranch in Lyons.
This is Lodo, aka Lower Downtown Denver--and this is where the club is that Bleeder Valve performs at.

I love seeing the real world places that authors bring into their fictional worlds--so I'm tagging any authors who would like to post some of the places they've put in their books--let me know and I'll link ya up to the post! Thanks!!

3 Things....

that frrrr--eeek me out:

1. Pointy Fences

Perhaps I've watched too many ER-type shows with people coming into the emergency room impaled. It doesn't help that I ride horses and have on occasion been airborne heading toward a fence. But recently when my new backyard fence was being put in, the iron-guy was building my gate and wanted to put Fleur De Lis tips on it and I freaked. I now have a smooth, non-impaling gate and fence. (side note: he actually called them Florida Leaves)

2. Tornadoes. I live in Tornado Alley, we have them all the time, we even have drinking games to go along with our constant tornado coverage--you'd think I would get used to it. (side note: I live very close to a location where one must take two drinks for every time Gary England mentions the street name. )

3. Skinny people (and becoming a skinny person). Okay--this is a recent discovery that perhaps explains why I self-sabotage my dieting efforts. I want to be fit and trim and all that, but skinny people freak me out. Really. I don't like to see bones. When I have dieted, I always get to point where I start to feel like I'm weak and breakable and I panic. I don't like it.
I don't like being heavy, either--but heavy people don't freak me out.

So what freaks you out?