Mini-Contest for Shadow Hills Swag and sorry for being MIA! CLOSED

 CLOSED!

Hey everyone! I received a lot of Shadow Hills swag from the wonderful author Anastasia Hopcus, so I'm giving away some. I'm giving away 5 signed bookmarks and 5 regular bookmarks! There will be 10 winners total and it will end February 11th (my sister's and bff's birthday). Please just fill out the form below. It's only open to U.S. and Canada residents.

Also, sorry I've been MIA this past week. I have been pretty busy studying and doing packets for finals, swim practice/meets, and I also have SATs Saturday : ( I probably won't have many posts til next week unfortunately. I can't wait til the new semester begins and swim team is over, so I can read and blog more!

Friday Firsts (13)

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? To participate in this weekly book meme is extremely easy.

• Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.
• Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
• Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title and the author of the book you are using. Even an ISBN helps!)
• Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?

The book I'm currently reading is Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I loved the first book the Hunger Games, so I can't wait to devour this one too! Here is the first sentence:

"I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air."

This first sentence is very nicely written, but it doesn't start off telling much about the story. It's intriguing and makes me excited to read more. The first several pages are good, so I hope it's as good as the first!

What's your current book's first sentence?

Awards!

I received a couple of duplicate awards this past week, and a new one! Thanks so much to Adriana of Loves to Read for the Honest Scrap Award, Miss Cindy of Simple Life and Reading for the Lovely Blog Award, and finally the new award from Sasha of the Sweet Bonjour for the Happy 101 Award!

Rules: List 10 things that make you happy. Try and do at least one of them today.

1. Reading YA!
2. Watching TV/ Movies
3. Hanging with family and friends
4. Playing my DS/Wii/PS2
5. Swimming
6. Eating yummy food
7. Getting things in the mail : )
8. My kitty
9. Listening to music
10. Anything Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Twilight

Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day. Link back to the person that tagged you.
I will add the bloggers I give the award to later this week!

Waiting on Wednesday (20)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that I'm eagerly awaiting. This week I can't wait for Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs. I love to swim and love to be in the water, so this sound just so cute! Also, the cover is so pretty, I don't think I could pass this up : ) Forgive My Fins comes out this summer on June 1, 2010! 

Forgive My Fins

by Tera Lynn Childs
(summary from her site)
Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life.

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.

A Brief History of Montmaray Winner!

The winner of A Brief History of Montmaray contest has been picked by Random.org, and the winning entry is #66 who is BookMac! I'll be sending her an email shortly.  Please respond back with your address by Thursday, or I will have to pick another winner. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Author Interview with Kate Hegarty

Hey everyone, last week I had my first author interview with Kate Hegarty who is the author of the upcoming novel Mieradome. Here is the interview! 

You mentioned in your about me that the story came from a dream you had, did you dream the part of the story then elaborated on the idea or did you dream most of the story? 

I definitely had the dream and then worked my way from there. I felt like a spectator wanting to know why Amavia, the main character of my story, was so curious and fascinated by an old oak tree. Oak trees are quite sacred in Irish lore and is also on my family's (Hegarty) coat of arms. You could say that the dream, plus the image of my own coat of arms was intriguing enough to continue on with this particular story. 

The main character of your new novel is a young girl, is she based off of someone you know or you possibly? 
Amavia is very much her own character, but I do see a feisty nature in her that is similar to me. We both don't give up easily, we're persistent in those things we want to do in life.

Since your first novel is fantasy, do you plan to keep writing books in that genre or switch to another genre? 
I do plan on writing more stories in the fantasy genre. I have my Bachelor's Thesis that I'd love to publish. My 3rd Great Aunt was a famous madam in Deadwood, South Dakota (employed & was friends with Calamity Jane). I have so many stories brewing....but fantasy seems to be the best suited to my writing style. 

The title and character’s names are very unique, how did you come up with them?
I absolutely love surnames!! A lot of characters, including the main characters Amavia, Inocian, and Thewlis are surnames. Other ones I just made up.

Will there be any sequels to Mieradome? 
Yes! I am currently working on the sequel for Mieradome! It will hopefully be out about a year after the publication of the first novel.

What is your favorite book from your childhood? Now? 
Childhood: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
Now: My House in Umbria by William Trevor

How much time do you spend writing each day? 
It depends. It could be only a few seconds jotting down a note about a character or new story idea or it could be 5 hours sitting at my desk. Most days I think.

When you are writing, what keeps you motivated or inspired? What’s the one thing you have to have when sitting down to write?
I am inspired by many things, but what keeps me motivated is to know what happens to characters down the road. I myself am not just the author but also a reader. I, too, want to know what happens at the end. I have to have a a pad of paper and a pen near me when I write; because more often than not a great idea comes and I'm busy doing something else.

Finally thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! Is there anything else you would like to add about your book, writing, ect? 
I hope you all enjoy the novel and that it inspires you to start writing your own stories!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

My YA fantasy novel, Mieradome, revolves around a young girl named Amavia, who believes she is a human girl, but slowly comes to find she is a faery in the world of Mieradome. Amavia's mother, Anastasica, had taken her out of the faery realm and hidden her away here in our human realm, so that she may be protected from her parents' past mistakes. But that was not enough, the forces that be found Amavia, and brought her back into the cosmos of the Grandmother Tree. There she meets other faeries, goblins, Telkar dragons, and Utopisols. Slowly who Amavia really was began to unravel to show the truth. The truth, that she just may be the evil they need to destroy. This is where our story begins.

EXCERPT:
“You will die Amavia that is certain,” said the dark black raven.

Deep red eyes penetrated Amavia’s pale flesh. Thousands of mini goose bumps burst from ripples of her skin, her muscles tensed; this was the moment where her life hung in the balance.

“Why must I die?,” Amavia asked.

The black raven, large and powerful, lunged at her quickly, snapping its watery yellow beak towards her face. 

“Your parents were supposed to dispose of you,” the raven replied.



A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME:
I have a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Goddard College in March ’09 and am a Library Helper at my local city library in their Children's department programs. I live in the Central Valley of Modesto and recently discovered my maternal 3rd Great Aunt Dora DuFran was a famous brothel madam in Deadwood, South Dakota. My senior BA thesis was a history of this madam. I have been working on my fantasy novel, Mieradome, for 7 years. I began working on writing the story on Oct. 31, 2002 , Halloween, (when I accidentally forgot to buy candy that year and needed something to occupy my time so I didn't go crazy with people continuing to bang on my door). I had a dream a few days before I started writing, about a young girl looking out on a second story balcony towards a tall oak tree in her backyard, as she watched a bright lighted spec disappear into the leaves and branches of the tree. Just as this young girl was curious where that lighted spec went in the tree, I was too. I wrote this story to figure it out. I am 27 years old and live in the Central Valley of California which has helped inspire me to write about locations I've traveled to, and also internationally.

Check out the book's blog: http://mieradome.blogspot.com/