‎"Laugh when you can.

Apologize when you should.

Let go of what you can't change.

Kiss slowly.

Play hard.

Forgive quickly.

Take chances.

Give everything & have no regrets.

Life is too short to be anything but happy..."

Lost Generation

"People will forget what you said and they will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel" ~Maya Angelou

Interview & Giveaway!

Special thanks to Marjolein's Book Blog for interviewing me! Be sure to check it out and comment to win an autographed copy of Undone!!

http://marjoleinbookblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/author-interviewbrooke-taylor-giveaway.html

Olympic-Sized Contest!!

To enter Tera Lynn Child's contest--check out her blog post and answer in comments for your chance to win Oh. My. Gods. and Goddess Boot Camp and UNDONE !!

Great giveaways offered throughout the olympics!!

Giveaways Galore!

Two chances to win a signed paperback copy of UNDONE!

Here at the blog of Rinda Elliott: http://relliott4.wordpress.com/

and

Here at Rachel Vincent's blog: http://urbanfantasy.blogspot.com/2010/02/undone-giveaway.html

Kori Kitzler is the “dark angel” of her high school: beautiful, mysterious, the subject of rumors. Serena Moore is just an average girl, until a run-in with Kori in the bathroom in eighth grade. When Kori tells her that they are more alike than she thinks, Serena is instantly intrigued, and their fateful friendship begins.

When the girls are asked to complete a writing assignment listing the five things they would want to happen–their five ways to tempt fate–Serena doesn’t take it seriously. But when something tragic happens to Kori, Serena is left with her loneliness and Kori’s five things. Can Serena complete her best friend’s tasks, or will she leave her list undone?

Both of these giveaways are open to international entries and will close at 11:59 pm (central) on Friday, February 5.

Good Luck!!

Available Now!

Paperback version is shipping now--whoo hoo!

UNDONE is available in both hard cover and paperback at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Borders, IndieBound.org, Target.com, Powell's, and most bookstores.

Winner Winner

First off--I had sooooooooo much fun reading our fairy tale! Ya'll did awesome! And we'll have to do it again!! I'm sorry poor Cyn's tale ended with her facing down a two-headed snake, but I'm sure the fairy queen can deal with him :-) and make it to her book launch on time!

Now onto our winner--sprinkling some fairy dust onto the random number generator.....

LILIBETH!

aka Chica Reader

Congrats!

You have WON a signed copy of Fairy Lust, Twilight perfume, and A Wing Tipped Kiss Glamourkins necklace!!!

***Lilibeth--please email me at brooke (at) brooketaylorbooks (dot) com with your mailing addy and I'll get these out ASAP! ***

Thanks everyone--stay tuned for more contests... I have some old arcs still to give out!

Fairy Tale - Once Upon a Time Contest

***Winner of the Kiss-it-2-Win-It contest is RagDollVampGirl! WHOO HOO--pls email me at brooketaylorbook (at) Yahoo (dot) com with mailing addy, Congrats!***

WIN a signed copy of Fairy Tale AND a "Wing tips kiss" Glamourkin Necklace (shown below) AND a brand new, boxed, sealed bottle of Twilight Perfume!!!

Here's an enticing description Cyn Balog's awesome debut Fairy Tale (formerly Fairy Lust):

"A captivating and witty dark fantasy that will have girls lusting after it.

Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. But when Cam’s cousin Pip comes to stay with the family, Cam seems depressed. Finally Cam confesses to Morgan what’s going on: Cam is a fairy. The night he was born, fairies came down and switched him with a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, heir to the fairy throne, to die. But both things happened, and now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.

Even as Cam physically changes, becoming more miserable each day, he and Morgan pledge to fool the fairies and stay together forever. But by the time Cam has to decide once and for all what to do, Morgan’s no longer sure what’s best for everyone, or whether her and Cam’s love can weather an uncertain future."

"She had always been a saucy sort of fairy--the kind who loved a bit of absinthe at tea time, and a little piano in the afternoon." (more info on Glamourkins can be found HERE)

So how do you win???

After consulting with my brainstorming fairy and getting her sloshed on absinthe, we (by which I mean she) came up with the perfect answer for a this debut release give away...

You have to help write a Fairy Tale!

This is how it works: I'll start us off and then each commenter continues the story by contributing a *sentence* (you can have more than one, of course, but don't hog the story with multiple plot points). Then the next person adds a *sentence* and so on until we have a story. (Make sense?) Be sure to read any previous comments to get a feel for where our story is going and then throw in your own plot point or details about what happens next. Remember to give our heroine lots of curve balls and challenges to overcome and maybe a hot prince or two :-) And be on the look out of celebrity author contributions! (In other words--fellow authors are encouraged to participate, just add a *NE* to the end of your comment if you're not actually entering the contest, just participating in the fairy tale.)

A few more details--deadline to comment is Monday, June 15 @ midnight, 5 bonus entries for spreading the word about this contest on your blog, just leave me the link. Winner will be chosen from a Random Number Generator. Okay--got it? Everyone ready? Here we go, the first sentence is:

"Once upon a time, there was a debut author named Cyn (d' Rella). It was the eve of her book release party and ..."

***Tell me what happens next???***

(need help? For useless fact about Cyn check out her website: http://www.cynbalog.com/)

Last Day to Enter!

Hurry Hurry--Last chance to enter the Kiss it 2 Win It contest!

http://brooketaylorbooks.blogspot.com/2009/05/kiss-it-2-win-it.html

Stay tuned for another super awesome giveaway coming up next week--Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog!! And if I get my ducks in a row, you may even get the hardcover version before it even hits stands--very cool, no? Stay tuned!

Reminder

****AUCTION ENDS MAY 31st!!!!****

Brenda Novak's 2009 Online Charity Auction to Benefit Diabetes ResearchThe auction is underway and there is soooooo much to bid on! Critiques from authors, agents, and editors! Signed books and ARCs! Once in a Lifetime experiences! So go check them all out:

http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Home.taf

And also bid to win not only a signed copy of UNDONE but also a really fly toggle bracelet with a tattoo charm. The "Fly Lightly" tattoo reminds me a lot of the story and the wish for those who have passed to be trouble free now. It's also just plain cool looking. So please go here and bid on Undone!

http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=1348347

Kiss it 2 Win it

WIN 2 awesome books !!! Simply leave a comment giving me your best kissing tip (keep it clean!) or biggest kissing blunder, then get 5 more chances by blogging about this contest (provide me the link as proof). You have until next Tuesday- June 2nd at midnight to enter. Winner will be randomly drawn.

The ABC's of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferrero

Parker Stanhope has played soccer practically since she could walk. And now that she’s a high school junior, everything she’s worked for is finally coming together. She’s paid her dues on the field, and as an upperclassman, she’s a shoo-in for the varsity team. But that’s not what happens.

This year, Coach Hartley moved up every JV player but two—and one of those two was Parker. Now, she’s stuck with the freshmen, her friends are cutting her loose, and her love of the game is seriously beginning to fail. But Parker is determined to get her life back. She has to get on the varsity team, and she has the perfect plan. All she needs now is the right kind of coach.

AND

Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra

Kara Martinez has been trying to be "normal" ever since the accident that took her father's life when she was eleven years old. She's buried the caliente side of her Mexican heritage with her father and tried to be the girl her rigid mother wants her to be -- compliant and dressed in pink, and certainly not acting out like her older brother Jason. Not even Danielle, her best friend at Valdez High, has seen the real Kara; only those who read her anonymous blog know the deepest secrets of the Sign Seer.

Because Kara has a gift -- one that often feels like a curse. She sees signs, visions that are clues to a person's fate, if she can put together the pieces of the puzzle in time. So far, she's been able to solve the clues and avert disaster for those she's been warned about -- until she sees the flash of a gun on a fellow classmate, and the stakes are raised higher than ever before. Kara does her best to follow the signs, but it's her heart that wanders into new territory when she falls for a mysterious guy from the wrong side of town, taking her closer to answers she may not be able to handle. Will her forbidden romance help her solve the deadly puzzle before it's too late...or lead her even further into danger?

Special thanks to the girls of YA Fresh for making this contest possible!

Today's Twilight Parody...with Cheeseburgers

.

Go! Bid! Win!

Brenda Novak's 2009 Online Charity Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research


The auction is underway and there is soooooo much to bid on! Critiques from authors, agents, and editors! Signed books and ARCs! Once in a Lifetime experiences! So go check them all out: http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Home.taf

Be sure to visit my agents full page of cool offerings here:
http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/auctionhelp.taf?S=N&R=2&C=2&m=3&sort=1&st=1&days=&category_id=10736&skipkw=1&_start=1

And bid to win not only a signed copy of UNDONE but also a really fly toggle bracelet with a tattoo charm. The "Fly Lightly" tattoo reminds me a lot of the story and the wish for those who have passed to be trouble free now. It's also just plain cool looking. So please go here and bid on Undone!

http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=1348347

Thank you!!!! ~Brooke

Let's Talk Trash

Forget the cover, forget the blurbs, forget all that author promo--have you ever read a horrible review, and think--I have GOT to read THAT book? I must admit that any book that is hauled out in the public forum by a reviewer and called "Trash" is pretty much an auto-buy for me.

You'd think I would've learned my lesson from Rainbow Party (Cursor over for Spoiler Alert: there was no actual Rainbow Party) and The Garden which I ended up putting down before I got to the snake sex part (or maybe I read it and was too daft to realize what was happening). I do love the cover though...

But why am I so swayed by a bad review, particularly one that promises a vulgar trashy read? Is it the train wreck factor? The what's-the-fuss factor? Or is that maybe, just maybe I like naughty books?

Okay, you got me. As a teen I read Flowers in the Attic, Forever, and Go Ask Alice--those were our big, bad, trashy books. They were also really good and have stood the test of time. Something tells me the trashy books of today won't. At least not the ones I've read.

But here are two more for my consideration--


Swoon which is touted to have a “Homecoming Orgy” and "sexual havoc" and as Publisher's Weekly claims: "This book makes Gossip Girl look like Sweet Valley High." SOLD!

and...wait for it...

Castration Celebration by Jake Wizner (Spanking Shakespeare)--yes it's exactly what it sounds like--a kind of "High School Musical" meets "Saw." Only late night giddiness, illegal substances, and a well-timed re-run of the John & Lorena Bobbitt Story could breed such a premise. I can only imagine what my agent or editor would've said to me had I trotted it out. But alas, I did not.


This book, as you can imagine, has been making the reviewer rounds and I cannot ignore it any longer. I give you the NY Post Review. As ridiculously insulting as Andrea Peyser is, the review is on some level (the is-she-on-something? level to be exact) hilarious. She bleats like sheep, she calls Random House--Random Partners House, and in a big, big finish (I'm imagining jazz hands) she implies that the author is a child molester:

"Wizner's biography lists his hobbies as writing, teaching and "going to the playground."

Just not near my kid.

I mean she doesn't just call the book trash--she calls the author trash and the publisher trash--Hullo? Auto buy!!

What do think of these books? Any others I need to check out?

Bragging on Miss Roxy

I'm a proud momma! Miss Roxy Anne Rockstar graduated from Advanced Obedience last night and also became CGC certified (Canine Good Citizen) which is a lot harder than it sounds. But she rocked it! So in honor of my baby girl growing up...I thought I'd share some of her pics--in case you are wondering, she is a Long Coated Akita.

Remember last year when she was this small????

And how she couldn't even reach the water bucket???

And here she was at 4 mos--so cute, but oh so rowdy!! Well here she is now, 1 year old and all grown up!

Going for car rides with her friends...And hanging out with the "big" boys Bear & Wolf (but they kinda look little next to her, LOL).

She brings so much joy into the lives around her and is such a gorgeous spirit inside and out, love her, love her, love her!!! And so very proud, because as Roxy would tell ya--bein' good is HARD!

Winner Winner!

And the winner of the Geektastic ARC is.......

I'm sooooo glad that I used a random number generator to pick the winner and didn't have to decide who was the "geekiest," because some of y'all really brought it! Loved reading all of the comments!

As for what makes me a geek--well I'm a book geek for sure. The sight of well-stocked bookshelves gets me tingly. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve musty libraries. I buy hardbacks whenever possible, because one day, when I'm all grown up, I'm going to have a library in my home. It's going to have floor to ceiling cases with those cool rolling ladders and everything. All of the artwork will be from illustrators AND there will be at least one shelf that is a secret doorway. Squee--I'm all excited just talking about it!!!

Anyhoo.... where were we? Ah yes--congrats Not So Closet Geeks--please email me at Brooke(at)Brooketaylorbooks(dot)com with your mailing addy!

And if you didn't win--stay tuned I have more ARCs to give away!!

Last Chance + Awesome News

Geektastic won't be available for months and months, who can wait that long to get their geek on with awesome authors like M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Tracy Lynn, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfield, Lisa Yee, and Sara Zarr? Not you!

Deadline to enter the Geektastic ARC is tonight at midnight! So go HERE now and tell me some geeky things about you!




Also--some awesome news!! Undone is a National Readers Choice Award finalist! Whoo hoo! Readers are teh awesome! Thank you!!!

More from Susan Boyle

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